Record up for grabs in 70th Sydney to Hobart

The 70th Sydney to Hobart yacht race down Australia's east coast has drawn its biggest fleet in two decades, with last year's fastest skipper saying on Tuesday the record time could be smashed.
The fleet for this year's race, which starts in Sydney Harbour on December 26, stands at 118 -- the largest since 1994 -- and includes the 100-foot supermaxi Wild Oats XI which last year won line honours for a seventh time.
Wild Oats set the record for the 628 nautical mile race, which includes the treacherous Bass Strait, in 2012 with a time of one day, 18 hours, 23 minutes and 12 seconds.
"There's many boats in the fleet that can kill that record," skipper Mark Richards said at the official launch for Australia's most famous yacht race.
"The 50-footers can beat the current record in the right conditions."So it's really an exciting time for everyone. It's an elusive thing the Hobart record, it's the record that can stand for 20 years as we've seen in the past... but it just comes down to conditions."
Wild Oats XI is one of five supermaxis in this year's edition of the race, alongside its fierce rival Perpetual Loyal and the newly-hulled Ragamuffin 100.
The keenly-awaited new boat Comanche, currently en route from the United States and owned by entrepreneur Jim Clark and his model wife Kristy Hinze-Clark, and fellow US entry RIO 100 are the others.
Comanche, which was built in Maine and is the result of two years of work to create a cutting-edge vessel which can win races and break records, might be new but could still win, admitted Richards.
"It's always testing times for a brand new boat to do the Hobart but we were in no different situation in 2005. We'd been in the water for two weeks and we actually ended up winning the race," he said."So anything can happen."
Richards said while talk was that Comanche "could be the future", in some respects it was similar to his heavier rival Perpetual Loyal.
"It's a very powerful boat. Both those boats, if they get the right conditions, they will be gone over the horizon," he said.
The Sydney to Hobart race, which is cheered off by thousands of onlookers, can see boats buffeted by huge waves and rough weather, or stranded for hours in becalmed conditions.
Anthony Bell, skipper of Perpetual Loyal, said his yacht was more than 16 nautical miles ahead of Wild Oats XI in last year's race when they "ran out of wind" and were overtaken.
He said they had worked to make the boat lighter
"Incentive-wise this year it's going to be big... it's a milestone number," he told reporters.
Source: AFP